WHAT DOES THE BALLON D'OR REALLY MEASURE?

Its all about the gold

Every time this year the world of football turns its attention to the Ballon d'Or. Contenders arise, cases are plead and performances improve. All for the right to become the world's best player. But is that really what the award represents? For anyone who doesn't know the winner of the Ballon d'Or is determined by a democratic process in which the national team coaches and captains of FIFA's member associations as well as journalists vote on who they think deserves the award. This voting procedure is flawed in far too many ways. For starters this clearly shows that the award is a popularity contest instead of recognition of merit. Maybe some journalists can avoid bias, but the players and coaches certainly cannot. Personal preference and past experiences can certainly make a difference during the voting procedure. For example in 2012, Denmark captain Daniel Agger gave Andrea Pirlo five points, Andres Iniesta three points and Lionel Messi one point. Now I'm sure that Daniel doesn't really believe that Cristiano isn't even among the best. It might just be a Liverpool player making life difficult for an ex-United player or with the fact that Ronaldo is the reason why Denmark did not make it out of the group stages in Euro 2012. Not to mention the fact that all votes are made public. So even while voting, the voters have to keep in mind that their relationships with players might be affected. In every way possible the system is flawed. So why do we all give such attention to an imperfect system?

In FIFA's description of the Ballon d'Or they only speak of individual performance and not of team success. However many votes are lost and gained because people seem to think that trophies should make a difference. People are only considering Ribery as a possible contender because he was the best player in the best team. His individual statistics are far from those of Ronaldo and Messi.

You must all be thinking if not the Ballon d'Or then what? Well why not the European Golden Shoe? The European Golden shoe is a based on a points system. This not only determines the most affective player but also gives a chance to players in lower leagues. Goals, assists and many other statistics are all factored in the selection of the winner. This process not only avoids opinion and bias but also gives everyone an equal chance.

But nonetheless the world will once give importance to one player. Not the best player but the most "popular" player.